I've worked in the bindery area of a press for the last 7 years, working from 8 P.M. to 8 A.M. Wed.-Fri., and then every other Saturday. It's very fast-paced work, and a lot of people can't do it. But it pays the bills and it's nice to only have to work 14 days out of every month.

Done afair bit of manual labor, though, and a big chunk of my main career involved what many consider a dangerous activity under arduous circumstances. Most of my jobs have been very physical in nature, come to think of it. I've never had a job that consisted solely of desk work.

But I also push paper as well. I work at a Foodservice, in which we also operate a Cash and Carry. I toss around cases of wine and beer, along with 30lb cases of french fries, canned goods, 50lb bags of flour, ect... and I deal with accounts receivable. I hurt at the end of my day...summer hours about 50-60 per week, winter hours are 40 per week.

I also have a second job at a restaurant as a retail consultant. Which about another 10-20 hours per week.

My husband works with me at the foodservice. He pulls a longer week there than I do. He works about 60-70 hours per week, and he throws around alot more shit than I do.

I would never be ashamed to go back to that (I'm actually thinking about it since I could make more in a factory than I am making now). In the factories and slaughterhouses my hands hurt more than anything else. In a nursing home (I was an aide/med person) my back and legs always hurt.

I think that they rip off CNAs. They are paid too little for what they are expected to do and then they call them "unskilled labor". I take offense to that. Any job that you work demands a skill-any job.IMHO, "unskilled labor" is just a term thrown around to promote classism.

With health care institutions. It might be because of the crazy wage differential between hospital admin and M.D.'s and everyone else practically. (although some surgical RN's around here make some good $$). I was in housekeeping and was basically a serf.

but they get awful hours and there is no real respect for them anymore. I have an aunt and a close friend who are both nurses and I've heard the story often.There is no respect anywhere anymore for the working wo/man. We are supposed to be happy w/ what we get and never ask for anything else. So many work harder than most would ever expect yet there is zero respect given to them.

that our capitalist economic system REQUIRES women to work for less. The system must be changed. Once women are equal to men in respect to social, economic and political justice we will find much more satisfaction in our work, and I am speaking as a man who has always supported the cause of women.

But, I earned the money for my business by doing manual labor.I'm no stranger to 'real' work.My family and I moved into our new house last year after spending the preceding three years building it.We all worked on this thing. Even my, then 11 y/o, daughter was driving nails and fetching tools and wood.

I did a lot of hospital work myself, mostly maintenance and housekeeping. And yard work and snow shoveling grade school and high school, worked on a loading dock one summer and then did delivery for a several years in hot and cold weather in an unairconditioned vans in a hot city downtown! My current biz is books used and rare and boxes of books are always heavy and I carry a lot of them around. Helps keep some weight off maybe. I write too but that is more mental stress than anything else.

If you call standing on your feet cutting hair for 6 hrs. + with no break manual than I am a manual laborer. It does require a lot of skill for which we are so underpaid, and the benefits suck. I can't afford to buy into the company health plan.

although I sat behind a desk as a dispatcher for a courier company for a few years before asking to be transferred to the warehouse. It's hot in the summer & cold in the winter, but at least I get exercise and I'm not chained to a desk all day.

I'm thinking of making a change soon though, the company I work for has really been letting the working conditions slide the past few months. We're extremely under staffed, half of our equipment doesn't work & management prefers yelling at the employees when the customers get upset rather than actually trying to fix the problems. The worst part is, any suggestion that doesn't come from management is automatically disqualified, then a week or 2 later, someone higher up on the food chain suggests exactly the same thing & gets all kinds of raves about it.

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